I can't stop laughing about this video. "Here comes the pizza!"

Thank goodness I'm easily amused.

The only crafting excitement of late comes from my recently-completed box bags, created using Kelly's tutorial (Thanks Kelly!). In goofy rockabilly fabrics:I'm not a very talented seamstress so they're pretty amateur, but they're decent enough. I used peltex for the interfacing to make them super-sturdy and box-like.

And what purpose were these box bags created for, you might ask?
For our new bowling shoes, of course!
This is an awesome 1950's-era candlepin lane that we frequent...one time the manager even took us in the back to see the pinsetting machinery (all original, can ya tell? ;):I'm totally in love with their awesome neon sign:And despite my new shoes, I still stink at bowling.
Hope you all have a great start to your week!

Aaaah! My eyes!Yes, the sun has finally come out to play! (This is especially funny because my father is convinced that everyone up in Maine has big dark eyes set into impossibly pale faces, due to the lack of sunlight. A world of Gollum-like people, if you will. Based on my own pasty complexion, I fear that there may be some basis in reality for this joke).

Anyway, I am sure glad the sun is shining because my fave snowbank "Big Bertha", while quite dirty from the last few plows over soft ground, has not shrunk very much from the last time I photographed her:
I want to say thanks for all your kind words on my fair-isle cardigan! I wish I had some cooler photos of it, but unfortunately the sleety icky weather forced me to stay indoors and I can't seem to take inspired photos when I'm inside. It's going to be too warm to wear it in the near future, so hopefully next winter I can revisit it with some more interesting shots.

One thing is for sure, mud season is here...At least I have some stripes to keep me happy! :D

It's a bit late for the Feb/March Project Spectrum party, but it's finished and whew, I'm relieved! This thing was becoming a wintry weight around my neck, and with all the finishing details required (zippers, cuffs, bottom band, etc.) I was seriously procrastinating.

I don't think this is my best sweater but I don't dislike it either. Substituting a different yarn (and a rather rustic hand-spun one at that!) required a lot of calculations. Despite all my work to convert the pattern, the pieces still didn't have the exact shape required. After decreasing the raglan portions to the proper length, I ended up with much wider tops than there was supposed to be, resulting in a too-large neck opening. I made the collar band as short as I dared and probably eased in a good 7 or 8 inches (!) of neck opening while attaching the collar. Still, the collar seems a bit gaping to me but I think I can live with it. I also couldn't find cute toggles like the ones in the pattern photo but I can easily replace those if I find better ones.

The ever-fascinating "wrong side" shot:
I had a lot of yarn left over. I'm not sure what I'll do with it...
Pattern Notes:
"Maine Fair-Isle Cardigan", AKA Pattern #28 from Vogue Knitting Winter 2004/2005. Knit in 100% wool yarn purchased from a local hobby farm.

I didn't have any problems with the pattern. I do think there are some small errors near the beginning of the pattern in terms of how many stitches you should have on the needle. Since I was calculating my own numbers anyway, I didn't get too involved in trying to figure out if there really was a problem, but I wrote a bit about it here.

Overall I am fairly pleased with the final product. However this thing is heavy and I don't think there will be many days that it will be comfortable to wear it, even up here!

Even if it doesn't look like spring here, I'm ready to start some spring knitting. I've gathered the yarn for Caister, from the newest Rowan #41 and it looks so cheerful and bright:I was totally boring and bought the "suggested" colors, but with only internet purchasing available to me I didn't dare try to substitute! That usually results in disaster for me. And, it so happens that two of the three Project Spectrum colors for April/May are represented here: Pink and Green! Whee!

It Might As Well Be January

We got well over a foot of snow last night and it kept falling most of the day.

There's a car under there somewhere.

Especially annoyed because we didn't even get a snow delay or anything , BOO! :( It's bad when the town's big plow truck gets stuck at the end of your road and you know have to find your way into work somehow. However, it could be worse, like the giant storm back in '04 when they didn't cancel work. This is what the front door of our office looked like later that day:
And after we finally shoveled it out, the view from the inside of the office out onto the porch (that's me!):
Of course all of that snow didn't fall in one storm, it had been piling up over the winter to get the bank that high!

One of my office mates was telling me about a storm five or six years ago that they got 33" of snow on April 17th!

I guess things could always be worse...

Other things I am grumpy about:

* The Red Sox dumping one of their radio announcers, Jerry Trupiano. His broadcasting style was criticized by some, but I liked him and Joe. I liked that they didn't feel the need to fill every second of on-air time with useless blather. I liked their quirky, non-bland style. Now we have Joe alternating games with Glenn Geffner and Dave O'Brien and I don't like either of the new guys! Glenn seems less offensive but apparently he is or was the VP of Communications for the Sox, which makes you wonder if his commentary is going to be a bit, um, biased? Dave O'Brien is just horrible. He is some ESPN talking-head automaton with no personality. I just looked up his Wikipedia entry and I'm even more appalled...he is in favor of those stupid "human interest stories" that they've ruined the Olympics with...BARF! I guess we won't be hearing the "crowd sounds" ever again with a windbag like him on the air!

* For the life of me, I can't seem to get job interviews lately. Unfortunately my field is pretty competitive, especially for state jobs, so I am trying to have some patience. Frustrating, though!

* For some reason my neighbor insists on driving across our water-saturated front lawn and turning it into an ugly mud pit. I can't figure it out because she could just back out of the driveway. Maybe she's afraid of backing up? Oh well, I guess it's a moot point since our plow guy just completely tore up the lawn trying to plow it. Eeek!

Cardigan update: I'm slowly getting it put together. It now has a zipper and sleeves and I'm working on knitting the bottom band. I'm debating what to do for a collar...the neck opening is quite a bit bigger than it was supposed to be and I'm not sure if the cuff-like collar that the pattern calls for is going to work very well with it. I may end up making a normal collar, like a lapel-type one or whatever you call it. We shall see.

Oh well, I guess that concludes this totally negative edition of Lobstah Life. Be happier next time!

Happy April to all! I hope your weather is looking a bit more spring-like than here. Forecast for this week:
Monday--Chance of Snow (2 to 5 inches)
Tuesday--Chance of Rain/Snow
Wednesday--Chance of Rain/Snow
Thursday--Snow Likely

Blech.

I guess the weather is trying to keep me in the mood to finish my cardigan, even though I really want to start something in cotton. After much foot-dragging, I finally wove the ends in and blocked it. Here's the body:There will be more knitting, to make the bands for the bottom, the collar, and the cuffs. I wanted to try to get a lot of the finishing done this weekend, but ended up doing a lot of running around. Plus keeping poor G company, who has been battling a nasty flu since Thursday. The saddest part is that he was supposed to fly down to NY to visit his sister and had to cancel the trip. I went to the library to pick up some books for him, but when one is spending 24 hrs a day in the house they get kinda bored. I bet he totally wishes he knew how to knit now, ha ha.

I also spent Saturday trying to find a separating zipper for the cardi, which was a total pain in the ass. The selection of 20" zippers was rather limited, I was hoping for a cream colored one but the closest thing they had was blinding white with silver zipper. I will have to see if it will work but if not that will delay this poor sweater even further.

Last weekend I visited my friend who had her baby a few weeks ago. Here he is with his hand-knitted loot:Altogether now, "Awww...."